Plainclothed police who raided the Yemeni journalists' syndicate in Sana'a called the reporters "traitors" and threatened that they would "teach them a lesson."

Marwan Damaj, the head of the syndicate, told the New York-based press watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists, that it was an attempt to prevent the press from covering anti-government demonstrations.

A further example is the blocking of the popular Yemeni news website, Masdar Online. It has been jammed five times since it was launched in 2009.